One of the most stylized facts in labor economics is the finding that wages tend to rise with job duration but what is the role of productivity between this relation? Intuitively, it seems rather unspectacular that experienced workers' earnings are higher than otherwise comparable junior workers', but economic literature offers three competing theories explaining this phenomenon. A unique database from a single professional sports industry, covering the past decade of player performance and wages in the National Basketball Association (NBA) is used to test the superiority of one model over others in explaining players' upwards sloping age-earnings profiles. The empirical results show little evidence of the notion that player wages are solely determined on the basis of their productivity. Findings are rather in accordance with shirking and matching ideas: Returns to tenure are found to be significant but it's magnitude is reduced when the spurious bias - stemming from OLS - is controlled for. The fact that tenure remains considerably large - unaffected of productivity - but is simultaneously mitigated due to job match specific effects, is in harmony with incentive and matching arguments.Joachim Prinz, born 1971, studied economics at the University of Trier, Copenhagen Business School and American University, Washington D.C. From 1999-2001 he was a scientific co-worker at the University of Greifswald, Department of Economics. Since 2001 University of Witten/ Herdecke.

Covers mainly the period from 1970 to 1993.

'The books should. . . . be bought by every university library. The research reported here is important, the exposition is lucid, the sequencing of chapters is sensible and the retrospective aspect of the volumes provides a fascinating insight into the working methods of one of the great economists of our time.' - Geraint Johnes, International Journal of Manpower Studies in Human Capital, the first volume of Jacob Mincer's essays to be published in this series, assesses the impact of education and job training on wage growth. It offers an authoritative study of the effects of human capital investments on labor turnover and the impact of technological change on human capital formation.

The papers in this volume present an excellent sampling of the best of current research in labor economics, combining the most sophisticated theory and econometric methods with high-quality data on a variety of problems. Originally presented at a Universities-National Bureau Committee for Economic Research conference on labor markets in 1978, and not published elsewhere, the thirteen papers treat four interrelated themes: labor mobility, job turnover, and life-cycle dynamics; the analysis of unemployment compensation and employment policy; labor market discrimination; and labor market information and investment. The Introduction by Sherwin Rosen provides a thoughtful guide to the contents of the papers and offers suggestions for continuing research.

This treatise investigates the empirical and theoretical issues of wage determination and wage differentials in Japan since World War II, concentrating on recent developments and highlighting Japan's institutional singularities

The economic performance of a national economy, as shown by indicators such as the rate of unemployment and inflation, is heavily dependent on the operation of its external and internal labour markets. From this standpoint the book focuses on the functions of internal labour markets and their interaction with external labour markets, comparing those of the Japanese and Western styles. The differing mechanisms of internal labour markets are examined by a strong range of international contributors from Japan, North America and Europe.

Chief economist for the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation and formerly with the U.S. Department of Labor, Richard A. Ippolito shows how pension plans can attract and retain more dedicated and productive workers. He also offers a blueprint for revising the social security plan with work incentives that would strengthen the system's financial condition.

In no economy do all employees fare equally. Some variation stems from innate worker heterogeneity, some from differential human capital investment, some from imperfect information, some from demand shocks, some from asymmetric technological change, and some from government policies.

Toshiaki Tachibanaki and Atsuhiro Taki emphasise several institutional features in Japan which differ from those in Euro-American countries: for example, the permanent employment and seniority system in wages and promotion, the dual structure, Keiretsu transactions, the main bank system, and intercorporate shareholding. This book examines in particular the distinction between long-run and short-run contractual relationships which produced such features. It presents both the positive and the negative evaluations of the factor market. Exploring the similarities and interdependencies between two important and idiosyncratic factor markets in Japan, this book brings data to hand which until now has only been available in specialist journals.